LAUSR

Abstract The variations of atmospheric compositions (ACs) can change the atmospheric interactions with other parts of the ecosystem, and it also affects the energy budget of the Earth. Satellite remote sensing plays a crucial role in monitoring AC by providing a matchless global perspective with consistency over long periods. Although China started space exploration missions in the early 1970s, the situation of lacking operational AC satellite missions was turned around until the launch of FY-3A in 2008. In the following decade, more Chinese pathfinder AC satellite missions were putting into operation, and then lead to a boom in related researches on air quality, trace gases and greenhouse gases (GHG) measurements. In particular, moderate resolution imageries of polar mission FY-3 series are used to monitor air quality, and recent comparable imagery onboard geostationary mission FY-4A could provide similar air pollution observation with higher temporal resolution of up to five minutes. Nadir spectrographs onboard FY-3 series and the latest pathfinder mission GF-5 aims to monitor various trace gases. Moreover, hyper-spectrometers onboard GF-5 and another pathfinder mission TanSat are devoted to mapping the global distribution of GHG, as a supplement to operational mission FY-3D. Besides the progress in the space-borne part, the in-situ calibration and validation have achieved fruitfully since the late 1990s, gaining insight into the consistency between the satellite and in-situ observations over China. Applications and studies based on Chinese satellite missions are still growing since it has only been a few years after their launch. Furthermore, the newly planned missions for monitoring AC with active remote sensing instruments are also illustrated, such as lidar, which will be able to improve the accuracy of space-borne observations.